My sister and I came to Hawaii to photograph a friend of mine’s wedding in Honolulu. While we were here, we made some extra time to sightsee and go on some excursions. One of those was to experience the history at Pearl Harbor.

We first had breakfast at Restaurant 604 near the Pearl Harbor Sites, then walked to the visitor center. We got our free tickets, which included a viewing of a film outlining the history and significance of Pearl Harbor, as well as a boat ride around the USS Arizona Memorial and the decommissioned USS Battleship Missouri.

Afterwards, we purchased tickets to go on the USS Bowfin submarine. It was dubbed the “Pearl Harbor Avenger” due to its commissioning date of December 7, 1942 - exactly one year after the Pearl Harbor attack.

The photos don’t really do justice to just how small the quarters are in the submarine. I felt like I could barely get a wide enough angle to capture all of the contents of the space we were in. We had to duck often to get around in the submarine and we wondered how fully grown adult men could live and sleep in such tight spaces.

We learned a lot about the history and the United States’ entrance into World War II. I tried to capture with my camera a little bit of what we saw.

LOCATION: Pearl Harbor Historic Sites | Honolulu, HI
GEAR USED: Canon 7D Mark II | Canon 16-35 f/2.8